Despite good revenue growth of 11% in the six months ended 31 August 2012, JSE-listed Altron’s profits have been pummelled due to margin pressure and writedowns at subsidiary Altech. For the period, Altron reported operating profit before capital items of R586m, from R627m previously. However, the problems at Altech
The rand nose-dived against major foreign currencies on Monday hitting a new three-and-a-half year low of R8,97/US$, before recovering slightly. The slide means gadgets and computers are about to get a lot more expensive, though not necessary
A decade ago, Steve Ballmer described the free and open-source Linux operating system as a “cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches”. The famously boisterous Microsoft CEO was attacking the General Public Licence which governs much of the software code developed by the
M-Pesa, which has more than 14m subscribers in Kenya, could be forced to increase transaction costs by 10% as East African nation’s treasury looks to impose a levy on transactions made using the mobile money transfer service. Though Kenya’s treasury says it expects mobile
When Stephen Elop took over at Nokia, he likened the company’s predicament to a man standing on a burning oil rig, debating whether to brave the cold sea or the flames. Nokia has since dived headlong into change – and is yet to surface. Microsoft, the company Elop left to join Nokia, is now toying with a similar plunge into
Reservoir Dogs, released 20 years ago in the US this month, blindsided almost everyone who saw it when it first came out with its fragmented storytelling, its juxtaposition of jaunty pop music and bracing violence, and its rat-tat-tat dialogue. That it feels almost conventional today is just a reflection of how influential
Vox Telecom, which recently introduced a satellite-based Internet service in SA called YahClick in partnership with Middle Eastern company YahSat, plans to launch a portable version of the product early next year. The product will consist of a terminal, called YahClick Go, and will be aimed at organisations and businesses
Communications minister Dina Pule is “surprised” by e.tv’s high court application against her in which the free-to-air broadcaster accuses her of acting unlawfully in appointing Sentech to manage the control system that will be used in the set-top boxes that are needed for consumers to receive digital terrestrial television signals
The first Parrot AR.Drone was great on paper, but notoriously tricky to pilot — and not destroy — in practice. The second improves greatly on the first, but it still feels like there’s design work and refinement to be done. The 15 minutes of battery life between hour-and-a-half-long charges don’t help either, particularly with something as addictive
MTN has been ordered to reinstate nine employees dismissed in September 2010, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said on Friday. The cellphone operator was also ordered to pay 12 months’ compensation, the union said following the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation
